High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Hutchinson Family Singers were a 19th-century American family singing group who became the most popular American entertainers of the 1840s. The group sang in four-part harmony a repertoire of political, social, comic, sentimental and dramatic works, and are considered by many to be the first uniquely American popular music performers. The group formed in the wake of a string of successful tours by Austrian singing groups such as the Tyrolese Minstrels and when American newspapers were demanding the cultivation of native talent. John Hutchinson orchestrated the group`s formation with his brothers Asa, Jesse, and Judson Hutchinson in 1840; the Hutchinsons gave their first performance on November 6 of that same year. Jesse Hutchinson quit the main group to write songs and manage their affairs; he was replaced by sister Abby Hutchinson.